Phantoms go to OT but lose at home

The Phantoms' Zack Stortini (45) skates toward the puck during a game against the Hershey Bears at the PPL Center in Allentown Jan. 21, 2015.

The Phantoms' Zack Stortini (45) skates toward the puck during a game against the Hershey Bears at the PPL Center in Allentown Jan. 21, 2015. (EMILY PAINE, THE MORNING CALL)

Of The Morning Call

Find out if the Phantoms ended their home losing streak

While the Lehigh Valley braced for a snow and ice storm outside, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and Hartford Wolf Pack unleashed a storm of goals inside the PPL Center on Saturday night.

Unfortunately, once again home ice tipped for the visitors.

Oscar Lindberg scored his 20th goal of the season as the Wolf Pack handed the Phantoms a tough 5-4 overtime loss. The Phantoms picked up a point for the standings, but lost their seventh straight home game and fell to 24-23-5-1 on the season.

Zack Stortini scored a pair of goals as the Phantoms scored twice on the power play and once short-handed against the No. 4 team in the Eastern Conference.

Ryan Bourque put the Wolf Pack on top 1-0 with a short-handed goal 10:05 into the game. The Phantoms had just made a defensive switch, but Jason Akeson, playing right D-man on the power play for more offense, didn't come off and Bourque went barreling through for an unopposed shot from the left circle and beat goalie Martin Ouellette on Hartford's first shot of the night. It marked the Wolf Pack's fourth short-handed goal of the season, and the sixth allowed by Lehigh Valley.

Akeson nearly got it back with 3:19 left in the period on a steal in front of the net and was two-on-none with Petr Straka on the right. He went near side on goalie Hartford goalie Jeff Malcolm and got the puck past him, but it clanked off the bottom of the pipe and Malcolm made the stop.

Akeson had yet another chance on a short-handed break and went 5-hole, but he lifted the shot and Malcolm made the save with 50.9 seconds left in the opening period.

Coach Terry Murray said he liked the way the team played in the opening period, particularly five-on-five and during the two penalty kills. The Phantoms allowed just three shots on goal in the opening period — the same number Akeson had during that 20 minutes — which tied the second fewest allowed in a period all season. The Phantoms held St. John's to two shots in the third period Nov. 22 at the PPL Center, and allowed three shots at Binghamton in the third period Dec. 31.

Murray made no bones about the line changes he made for Friday's loss to Providence, saying they were the direct result of the play that caused the game-tying goal in Wednesday's loss to Binghamton to kick off the homestand. By the third period Friday, however, he switched back to the old lines in an attempt to get some offense going.

With Darroll Powe missing the Hartford game due to illness, Murray once again shifted the lines, but put Straka, Nick Cousins and Akeson together for offense, with a second line of Taylro Leier, Scott Laughton and Andrew Gordon.

For the checkers, Austin Fyten's line with Jay Rosehill and Brett Hextall remained intact, but Kevin Goumas centered Stortini and Derek Mathers, who was a healthy scratch in the previous three games.

With the 6-foot-6 Steven Delisle out, Murray went with 5-foot-8 rookie defenseman Jesper Pettersson, who had been a healthy scratch for the previous five games.

Stortini knotted the game 4:14 into the second period by redirecting Petterson's blast from the left circle, but Hartford regained the lead just 22 seconds later when former Phantom Tyler Brown converted.

Stortini added to his career-high in goals with his 13th just 54 seconds after that with a power play goal, redirecting a Brandon Manning slapshot that came off an Akeson cross-ice pass to tie the game at 2.

The Wolf Pack regained the lead at 8:21 of the period when Danny Kristo fired one into Ouellette's blocker that dribbled into the net, chasing Ouellette, who surrendered three goals on seven shots. Anthony Stolarz, who got chased in the second period Friday night, entered in relief.

Akeson finally found the net, this time short-handed, to regain a tie at 3-3. Stortini again had a hand in the goal as it was his tripping penalty the Phantoms were killing at the time. Akeson received the puck from Laughton and drew Malcolm to the right side of the goal before scoring top shelf far side with 8:55 left in the second period.

Chris Bourque joined the scoring parade with his 20th goal of the season, this one 26 seconds into the third period off a Phantoms turnover in the neutral zone. Bourque gained the left circle and shot through Mark Alt, beating Stolarz to the nearside for a 4-3 Hartford lead.

Rosehill appeared to have the 4-4 equalizer for the Phantoms with 10:51 left in regulation on a charge to the net, lifting the puck, but referee Kendrick Nicholson waved it off for goaltender interference, but didn't penalize anyone for it. Fyten got pushed into Malcolm by Dallas Jackson and barely made contact, but it met Nicholson's criteria for disallowing the goal.

Cousins came through to tie the game 4-4 with his 17th goal of the season, slamming one home from the right circle through a Stortini screen on the power play with 7:36 left in regulation.

Phantom Files: After Friday night's games, the Phantoms dropped from 10th place in the Eastern Conference to 11th, one point behind St. John's, one point ahead of Albany, and just four points ahead of the bedeviling Binghamton Senators, whom the Phantoms meet Saturday in their next game to close out the four-game home stand … Because of the snow, the crowd that attended the game was far below the announced paid sellout figure of 8,791, but the throng cheered wildly when the results of the parent-club Philadelphia Flyers shootout win over the NHL-leading Nashville Predators was announced, particularly with Flyer-Phantom Rob Zepp picking up the win while looking outstanding in shootout.